Dear Geist,

Why do English-language style guides tell us to italicize words in other languages when they appear in English running text? Ours is a fast-moving, cosmopolitan world, with thousands of “English” words and terms borrowed from languages around the globe, and vice versa. Wouldn't it be easier to read, and less suggestive of a hierarchy in languages, if we treated all text the same?

Dear Rose,

on this subject.